We’re climbing the mountain, we can even see Heaven from here! In this episode Jacob gets “silverpoint” wrong, acceptable gay/Italian greeting kisses are briefly discussed, and there is, wait for it, another vision…and so much foreshading!

Still climbing the mountain with Dante as we continue “Purgatorio,” cantos 9-17. We discuss P on Dante’s face, what’s the point of absolution anyway, reader burnout, mansplaining angels, and more!

It’s Infernovember again! We’re tackling “Purgatorio” this month, which the hosts are finding challenging, rewarding, and not quite so sensational as some of Dante’s other works. More as we learn more!

Back to hell! We open up two of Christianity’s first hell-journeys, the apocalypses of Peter and Paul. I think we were a bit kind to these two often sadistic texts, what do you think?

In fairness, it’s easy to make a confusing muddle out of the Testament of Solomon, because it’s already,  like, three confusing muddles.

Episode #87: St. Augustine: Podcasting is Justice for the Unjust

Okay, we’ve done it. A monument to scholarship and spiritual insight, well over an hour of confused and bemused conversation on St. Augustine. This was surprisingly fun, which means that it’s probably dodgy. Anyway!

In our “Hell news” bit, we talked about deciphering the devil-inspired and encrypted letter from a 17th century nun, and maybe you need to check out the Franz Kafka Rock Opera from Home Movies (NOT the “Squiggle Show”). OR Insane Clown Posse’s “Miracles.”

As is our idiom, we’re up to episode 9 of 10 on the seven deadly sins. So glad you’ve stayed with us on this journey, though surely we’re both asking why at this point.

Thunder Bay Sally’s journey into fear, hope, and stick figure dismemberment was one of the weirder visits to her world. We’re still puzzling over it.

Please give her a watch. In fact, give her 50 watches, it’ll puzzle her.

Callout to Paul and Gaetan Brizzi’s astonishing adaptation of Dante’s Inferno! An absolutely fabulous illstrated tour of the Inferno, with a style that’s partly Durer and partly classic eurocomic. It’s available for pre-order on Amazon! 

Episode #84: The Rise and Fall of Pride!

We’re very excited to have our friend from Portland by way of Canada, Dr. Nick Literski, joining us this week! Dr. Nick is a lecturer and spiritual guidance professional, you can “meet” him at Dancing Ancestors.

We are feeling somewhat betrayed by Thunder Bay Sally this week, her attempt was lackluster. There’s a lot to cover and she must have run out of baking soda and colored water this week, but…still.

I’m worried that we’re her primary audience, that would be sad.

At some point in the editing of Episode 84, Jacob realized that we were spending an inordinant amount of time discussing…a diagram. Which makes for great podcasting. But it was too tied into the episode to drop for the sake of sanity. We hope that someone visits our web page, and finds out that we have this colorful chart waiting for them.

Episode #83: Angry About Wrath

Back with another episode…two in a month! Can you handle the breakneck speed? Tone it down a bit with a Brother’s Keeper!

You know what? Wrath was hard. This one was a struggle, for a sin with so much stage presence, Wrath was kind of flat. Even the medieval attempts to flip the script just made the sin kind of ambiguous. 

But first, maybe deal with the spiritual crisis that is Thunder Bay Sally’s take on wrath. Honestly, we’re still shaking off the effects of this one, it’s a weird journey into the mind of god. Up through a straw.